1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation image capturing system, a radiation image capturing method, and a program for controlling a plurality of image capturing apparatus of different specifications with a processor according to image capturing instruction information to capture radiation images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, there have widely been used radiation image capturing apparatus which apply a radiation to a subject and guide the radiation that has passed through the subject to a radiation detector, which captures a radiation image from the radiation.
One known radiation detector is a stimulable phosphor panel which stores a radiation energy representative of a radiation image in a phosphor. When the stimulable phosphor panel is irradiated with stimulating light, the phosphor emits stimulated light representative of the stored radiation image. The stimulable phosphor panel with the radiation image recorded therein is supplied to a reading apparatus which reads the stored radiation image as a visible radiation image.
There has also been developed a radiation detector having a solid-state detector for converting a radiation directly into an electric signal or converting a radiation into visible light with a scintillator and then converting the visible light into an electric signal to read a detected radiation image.
There are available in the art various image capturing apparatus of different specifications for capturing radiation images using radiation detectors depending on the conditions of patients as subjects to be imaged and image capturing conditions including body regions to be imaged. Those different image capturing apparatus are controlled by respective processors of specifications corresponding to the specifications of the image capturing apparatus. According to a known radiographic system, various image capturing apparatus and processors are connected to a radiology information system (RIS) by an in-house network, and patient information and image capturing instruction information representative of image capturing conditions set by the RIS which include image capturing methods, body regions to be imaged, radiation dose, etc. are supplied to the processors, which then control the corresponding image capturing apparatus to capture radiation images (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-247137).
In sites of medical practice such as operating rooms or the like, it is often necessary to capture radiation images of urgent patients quickly in order to treat them quickly and correctly. Systems for capturing radiation images in such emergency cases are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-165782 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-527303 (PCT).
The system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-165782 operates as follows: When an emergency image capturing mode is selected on a medical diagnostic apparatus, the medical diagnostic apparatus selects and displays emergency preset conditions on a display monitor, and the operator selects image capturing conditions according to the displayed emergency preset conditions.
The system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-527303 (PCT) includes an emergency control unit having an emergency control means independently of a central control unit. In the event of a failure of the central control unit, the emergency control unit takes over and shoulders part of the processing sequence of the central control unit.
The emergency systems disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-165782 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-527303 (PCT) are based on the assumption that they are being energized by a power supply. If the disclosed emergency systems are not being powered, then they are unable to immediately comply with a request to capture radiation images of urgent patients.